Dear 1L, Commas + periods go INSIDE the quotes in legal writing.

Dear 1L, Commas + periods go INSIDE the quotes in legal writing. Here’s a way to remember: “𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐭𝐥𝐞 𝐤𝐢𝐝𝐬 𝐦𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐲 𝐈𝐍𝐒𝐈𝐃𝐄 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞.”

🩳 “Little kids” are short.
Periods and commas [.,] are little kids.
They sit on or below the line.
They’re too short for cars to see.
They must play safely INSIDE the fence (the quotes).

👖 “Big kids” are tall.
Question marks, exclamation points & semi-colons [?!;] are big.
They sit above the line.
They’re tall enough for cars to see.
They can play safely OUTSIDE the fence (the quotes).

TWO IMPORTANT NOTES:

1️⃣ Commas and periods ALWAYS go inside the quotes. This is true even if they didn’t appear in the original that you’re quoting.

Let me demonstrate that last part:

🔷 𝔼𝕩𝕒𝕞𝕡𝕝𝕖 𝟙:

Original by court: “The complaint lacked sufficient facts to survive summary dismissal, but we granted leave to amend.”

Your sentence: The court dismissed the complaint because it “lacked sufficient facts,” but plaintiff got leave to amend. ✅

 NOTE: The comma after “facts” goes inside the quote marks, even though no comma was there in the original.

🔷 𝔼𝕩𝕒𝕞𝕡𝕝𝕖 𝟚:

Original by court: “We vacate and remand for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.”

Your sentence: The court “remand[ed] for further proceedings.” ✅

 NOTE: The period after “proceedings” goes inside the quote marks, even though no period was there in the original.

2️⃣ Ending question marks, exclamation points, and semi-colons go outside the quotes if they weren’t present in the original. But if they did appear in the original, we put them inside the quote marks.

To illustrate:

◾️ Did she ask, “What time is it?”
◾️ Did she assert, “I’ll leave at 9:00”?

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Please ask me any questions you might have. These punctuation/quote rules trip up lots of folks, and they are DIFFERENT outside the US.

💌 Amanda

#DearLegalWriter